On the occasion of the opening of the Liebieghaus as a sculpture collection on 14 October 1909, two works were donated to the museum by citizens of Frankfurt: the Frankfurt Athena, an important ancient statue, and Andrea della Robbia’s Marian…

Crucifixes – depictions of Christ nailed to the cross – are the central pictorial theme in the Christian religion: as enduring reminders of the sacrifice of his death. They number among the most important mobile items of decoration in Medieval…

Like so many ivory reliefs, this panel was also once part of a book cover. It illustrates the connection between the Christian Holy Communion and Christ’s sacrifice of his own life. It shows Christ on the cross with his mother, Mary, and his…

These four impressive figures were part of a scene of the lamentation of the dead Christ after his removal from the cross. The group is incomplete, but can be reconstructed. In keeping with the Biblical story as well as pictorial tradition, a…

One of the prime examples of small-scale Medieval sculpture in the Liebieghaus is this ivory sculpture of the seated Virgin with the Christ Child. Ivory was a popular and frequently used material in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Paris…

The Virgin Mary stands on the globe and seems to be rising to heaven with a spiral motion. The back of the figure seems insubstantial and rather reminiscent of clouds. The impression of incorporeality and the contrast between it and the ample…

The Master of Grosslobming is thought to have been active around 1400. The sculptor’s designation derives from the village of Grosslobming, Styria, where five sculptures, evidently by the same hand, were found. Four of them are now in the…

The model in the Liebieghaus gives an impression of the type of altarpiece that was most common in the eighteenth century. Above a curved groundplan, the arched picture surround of the main section is flanked by columns. The lower storey with the…

Figural groups with the dead Christ deposed from the cross and lying on the lap of his grieving mother Mary were popular in the fourteenth century. The English word for them is pietà, the Italian word for »pity«, whereas the German word,…

Figural groups with the dead Christ deposed from the cross and lying on the lap of his grieving mother Mary were popular in the fourteenth century. The English word for them is pietà, the Italian word for »pity«, whereas the German word,…